We've Both Changed
by LauraahFTW
Summary: - Originally RP - "I'm the cold one, the heartless one. The one who really couldn't care less if her partner died, or that's what everybody thinks. Everybody sees me as a lone wolf, and the only one that doesn't - didn't - was you. Coulson picked up on it, when you weren't there, how I worked around Stark."


**A/N: I want to admit, I never thought I would do this. This is actually a Roleplay with some stranger on 'Omegle' and it was just so full of emotion, I had to post it on here... Each paragraph is two different people, it did have the 'You' and 'Stranger' things that are usually on omegle, but that kind of ruined it. So here it is, told from two perspectives per paragraph... I was Natasha by the way... **

**-LJ x**

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Natasha slid her knife into her ankle holster, not daring to look back at the man she had just killed. This assignment had been rough and she just made her final kill. She wondered where her partner was, if he had finished off the names on his list yet. She stared up to the buildings around her, wondering if he was perched on the roof of one, waiting for her.

Spotting the familiar redhead below, Clint smiled briefly and dropped down in front of her from the roof he was waiting on. "I see you've gotten your list done," he said simply, wiping his hands on his pants and glancing at the body.

She just looked at him, she couldn't decide if he was happy or unhappy about being partnered with her again, they had worked alone for almost a year, and since the avengers came back to life, she half expected Fury to stop sending them out with lists and keep them in New York, but now, they were in Tunisia, they had been for two weeks. "Yes, he was the last one. I see you have too."

"Yeah. Well, it was harder than I thought," he sighed, looking around. "These guys really knew who they were dealing with." His gaze met hers and once again, she was unreadable. It was something he'd gotten used to, but that didn't mean he had to like it. After they'd been assigned to jobs as a pair again, Clint couldn't help but feel that there was something different, less personal about their relationship.

"Everybody saw the news, everybody knows about the avengers - that includes the assassins" She rubbed some dry blood off of her hands. "Why is Fury still sending us out here? There are other agents, we should be in New York, not killing people Fury wants gone, we should be in the tower with the rest of them" Natasha was unsure what triggered those last few sentences but she knew it was probably not the best thing to say in the middle of a dark alley, next to a dead body in a foreign country. She might as well have yelled: 'Hey, we're the assassins that were in New York'. She looked back up at him and offered him a silent apology.

He sighed heavily, looking around just in case. At her look all he offered was a stern glance. "Listen, I want to be in New York just as much as you do," he began, already heading down the alley. They needed to get back to their temporary base before anyone showed up at the scene. You could never be too sure about whether or not the other side had backup. "Fury needs us here. He trusts me, and you, to do the dirtywork. We follow orders? We go back to the city with Steve, Bruce, Thor, and Tony. It's that simple." Clint understood where she was coming from, but it was their duty to carry through for S.H.I.E.L.D.

Natasha followed him down the alley at a close pace, checking over her shoulder every few seconds. "But will we really go back? Or will we be jetted off so another unpronounceable country? When are we ever going to allowed to have a few weeks off." Even to her this sounded like something she would never say. "We need some time, Clint. Since the ... you know, when we had to scatter after the battle. They got time off, to re-evaluate the situation, Thor got to go home, we had to drive right back to S.H.I.E.L.D"

"That says all sorts of great things about us, then." Clint looked behind him at Natasha, trying to ease her worries. "It's because they know we don't have much to go back to, anyway. I for one love working all the time." He shrugged as they winded the narrow alleys and streets. "It takes my mind off things. Why would you wanna go back to New York and deal with the rest of the Avengers, anyway? I thought you were more of a solo kind of person." Then again, he shouldn't have assumed he'd broken her shell. No one was able to achieve it so far.

She stopped in her tracks at his last statement and asked him one simple question"How long have you been partnered with me?"

Clint turned around to face her. "Quite a while," he admitted with a sigh. "But still, besides me...Never thought of you as a people person."

She sighed and strutted on ahead of him. He knew nothing, the year she had to work alone, it mentally messed her up, knowing he wasn't on a rooftop or in an alcove with his bow set, ready to take out the target if something went wrong. When she heard he was compromised from Coulson at the start of the mission, those few seconds her world broke apart. She cursed silently to herself about Fury and how he shouldn't have separated them. Since they had become partners, she'd found it physically draining to work alone, and even though she did it, she didn't like it. The avengers had become her family - Kinda - and working with them took a whole lot of weight off of her shoulders, and there he was questioning her ability to work with others, and he knew her the most. What did the others think about her?

"Hey- Nat, wait up, will you?" He hadn't known he'd said anything wrong, but she looked towards him now more coldly than usual. He sped after her, eventually walking quickly-paced by her side. "Listen, I didn't mean to offend you," he sighed, the two getting closer and closer to their hideout. "Things have just seemed different since we've partnered up again. Can you blame me?"

"I had no idea where you were, for a year" She told him. "Then the first thing I hear about you, I was tied to a chair, I was told you were compromised." She wasn't answering his question, but she was answering something, something he didn't word, maybe he didn't even think it. Either way she was saying this. "I'm the cold one, the heartless one. The one who really couldn't care less if her partner died, or that's what everybody thinks. Everybody sees me as a lone wolf, and the only one that doesn't - didn't - was you. Coulson picked up on it, when you weren't there, how I worked around Stark." She ended her statement like that, not really sure of what to say next. Then it hit her like a mallet to the face. "Ever since, what happened, it feels like you would rather be killing then helping. We both have changed, Clint. We've swapped, all of a sudden I'm the one who cares, and you... You..." they reached their temporary home. "I feel like I don't know you. I can't read you"

He stopped outside of the house, looking at her with hurt flashing across his features. "I never said you were heartless," he responded pathetically, taken aback by the sudden flow of emotion he was getting from her. "I never thought of you as anything but brilliant. If I'm unreadable, it's for your own safety." Clint cleared his throat, never having been good at putting things into words. "After I was compromised I didn't know how to become a part of the team again. I'm afraid it'll happen, that I'll hurt you. I can't do that and you know it."

Natasha felt like crying (something which for her, she would never let happen) "So I'm losing my best friend for my own safety?" She retorted, her messy red hair coupled with her now sad eyes making her look even more tired than she actually was. "You're not going to hurt me, Clint."

"But what if I do, Nat?" He leaned against the building's wall, eyeing her wearily. "I don't want you to change because of me. You're good at your job, you're good at everything you've ever wanted to do. You're reaching the /peak/ of your career. Do you really want me to soften you up?" He laughed dryly, a failed attempt at lightening the mood.

"Since I've been partnered with you, I feel human, I like that feeling. It was unwelcome at starters, feeling the type of emotion I feel, feeling remorse after every kill, you reminded me who I was, and since Loki did that to you, I can feel your grip on humanity loosening. I don't like the way it feels, seeing you turn into somebody you're blatantly not" She rubbed her blood-stained hands across her face. "I want you back to being you"

His eyebrows furrowed and he tone was softer now, sadder. "You don't need to feel remorse, Nat. It'll kill you, with all the people we've gone after." Clint stepped forward with another sigh. "I want me back to being me, too. But we both know it's not going to happen overnight. I'd love to have us back to normal, back to being able to trust one another."

"I trust you with every fibre of my being, are you saying you don't trust me?" She questioned.

"Of course I trust you!" Everything was coming out wrong, and Clint mentally chastised himself. "But look at us, Natasha. Things are different now. It's not the same trust as before and you know it."

He had a point. But the only thing that had changed on the side of trust was her view on his personality, she trusted him to be the one to remind her what was right, but everything seemed wrong. "I'm just fed up with this, everything. I'm fed up with Fury, I'm fed up with not being able to go outside without being recognised by name or by an enemy. I'm fed up of not being able to experience what everybody experiences, this" She motioned to the crappy building. "This is not out home, our home is in New York, in the tower. They're our family, Clint. They're the closest thing me or you will ever get to it anyway. But they have other people too, Tony has Pepper, Thor has Jane.." Steve didn't really have anybody any more, but he knew what it felt like to have somebody. "You were who I had, but now we've changed. I want what everybody else has, and this has taken it away from us"

"I still care about you," he tried explaining, knowing his words were doing no good and feeling helpless. "I care about you more than anyone. From Budapest, until the end of time. And we'll work on things. Eventually, we'll get back to New York. We'll be with our wacked up family again soon, I promise." Gently he placed a comforting had on her shoulder. "But for now? We need to do our job. We need to stick together. Everything will work out. It always does for us, remember?"

"I remember" She muttered. Wanting him to comfort her more she stopped talking, hearing him like this reminded her of how he used to be, she wanted that.

"Let's go inside, okay?" He said comfortingly, taking her hand and leading her into the dark building. Unfortunately it was a pretty run down safe house, but it was the best that could've been found on such a short-notice mission. "We can talk some more in here. I like it when you talk." Clint smiled, heading to the tiny living area.

The corners of her mouth cured up as she followed him in. "I like it more when you do the talking" She laughed slightly.

Clint grinned, sitting down on the small sofa. "See? Not that hard. We're getting back to normal already."

Natasha tensed up, hoping he hadn't jinxed it. She joined him on the small sofa, its sheer size pushing them closer together. "Slowly" she coughed.

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**A/N: So I really liked that... I hope you did as well, and if by some random chance, you are stranger, I love you.**

**Reviews are welcome :)**

**-LJ x**


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